Introduction: In February this year, the car market picked up strongly, becoming the market with the largest market share. Among them, the market segments of compact cars and medium-sized, medium-sized and large-sized cars show differentiation.
(Text/Yu Waijun Editor/Lou Bing) Despite the impact of the Spring Festival holiday and the repeated epidemics, the domestic narrow passenger car market still achieved positive growth in February this year, of which the growth of the car market was particularly obvious. According to the Association of Passenger Vehicles, China's total passenger car sales in February were 1.257 million units, up 5.1% from the same period last year.
Of the three major model categories, the sedan market was strong last month. According to the data, in February this year, domestic car sales were 602,000 units, an increase of 7.0% year-on-year, accounting for 48.1% of the passenger car market share. The car market showed substantial growth last month, mainly due to the recovery of the supply of joint venture brand chips and the continuous rapid growth of independent brands in the new energy car segment.
Specific to the various car segments, the mini car and small car segments have grown significantly with the help of new energy products, with sales of 63,000 units and 31,000 units in February, respectively, up 93.8% and 18.2% year-on-year, far exceeding the average. In addition, the mid-size sedan and medium-sized sedan markets also maintained a good growth trend, growing by 0.7% and 7.9% respectively in February. Unlike the above segments, the highest-selling compact sedan market fell slightly by 0.2%, which is the only segment of the car segment to show declines.
In terms of camps, autonomous cars and Japanese cars have become the main driving force driving the domestic car market, with sales of 212,000 units and 156,000 units in February, respectively, an increase of 54.7% and 7.9% year-on-year, respectively; while German cars and American cars showed a decline of more than 10% for two consecutive months, but the decline narrowed from January this year, with a decline of 15.6% and 16.4% in February.
Mainstream sedan market down 0.2%
Under the background of consumption upgrading and electrification, the living space of small cars in the domestic passenger car market is constantly being compressed and gradually replaced by micro pure electric vehicles. The data shows that the market for small cars has shrunk to 2.4%. At present, independent brands, German brands and American brands have basically abandoned the small car market, and the layout of products has few and slow replacement, only Japanese brands such as Toyota and Honda are still struggling to support this market segment.
Judging from the top ten list of small car sales in February according to the Observer Network Car Channel (Engine Sight), the monthly sales of all small cars on the list failed to exceed 5,000 units. The Previously Well-Performing Fit suddenly went to a halt last month, selling just 1,905 units, down 45.5 percent from the same period last year. Only three models, Toyota Vios, Zhixuan and Chevrolet Sail, broke through the threshold of 3,000 units in February, of which Sail is currently only selling in overseas markets.
Although the compact sedan market fell in February, it remains the largest and most competitive segment of the sedan segment. In this segment, the joint venture brand occupies an absolute dominant position, and a total of 7 joint venture cars entered the top 10 list of compact car sales last month.
At present, Xuanyi and Langyi are still in the compact car market, and even maintain a strong momentum in the entire car, occupying the position of champion and runner-up for a long time. In February this year, both Xuanyi and Langyi showed significant growth, with monthly sales of 34,705 units and 32,037 units, respectively, up 30.2% and 141.5% year-on-year, respectively.
Among them, Xuanyi was able to show a substantial increase in the last month, which is very much related to the sales of its multi-generation models. It is worth noting that although Xuanyi has increased the e-POWER hybrid model, it has not brought too much increment to Xuanyi, with sales of only 1389 vehicles in February.
Langyi doubled its growth in February, mainly due to a lower base in the same period last year. In addition, Langyi will usher in a mid-term reform this year, which may add certain variables to the long-maintained "dispute between the two yi".
Compared with the substantial growth of Langyi and Xuanyi, the main models of compact cars such as Corolla, Bora, Sagitar and Leiling have declined to varying degrees due to factors such as chips and the epidemic, and the cumulative sales have fallen by more than 20%, which is also an important factor in the slight decline in the compact car market.
In addition to the decline in the above models, Yinglang, a frequent flyer who was in the top five monthly sales of cars last year, failed to sell more than 10,000 for two consecutive months after entering 2022 and fell by more than 65%. According to the data, Yinglang sold 8603 vehicles in February, down 66.4% year-on-year. However, Yinglang's terminal retail sales reached 12,925 units in February, which alleviated the inventory pressure of dealers to some extent.
In addition, independent brands are also constantly increasing their layout in the compact car market, including Geely's launch of new models such as Xingrui and GAC Trumpchi to bring Shadow Leopard. Last month, the number of models with independent brands entering the top ten list increased to 3. In addition to the frequently shortlisted Geely Emgrand and Changan Yidong, SAIC MG's MG 5 successfully entered the list and ranked fourth with a monthly sales performance of 17,026 vehicles.
In addition to MG 5, Emgrand achieved substantial growth due to the low base of the same period last year, an increase of 206.0%. Xingrui and Changan Yidong saw declines last month due to factors such as holidays and insufficient supply of some parts, with February sales of 6,001 units and 10,186 units, down 17.6% and 32.3% year-on-year, respectively. However, referring to last year's average monthly sales of more than 10,000 results, Xingrui fell below 10,000 vehicles will not become the norm, in the long run there is still room for growth.
Demand for medium and large sedans remains strong
With the continuous upgrading of consumption, consumers' demand for medium-sized and medium-sized cars is increasing, which can be seen from the fact that the sales of medium-sized and medium-sized cars in February are basically growth-oriented and many models enter the top fifteen of the February car sales list. At present, in the traditional fuel medium-sized and medium-sized car market, mainstream joint venture brands and luxury brands occupy almost the entire market segment, and independent brands are still difficult to shake their position.
The medium-sized car market is almost dominated by Japanese and German cars, and only one model of the independent car, the Hongqi H5, has entered the top ten of the sales of medium-sized cars. Among them, the Japanese top three Accord, TianLai and Camry all exceeded 13,000 vehicles last month and occupied the position of champion and runner-up, up 79.5%, 112.3% and 203.6% respectively. German Passat and Magotan followed, with February sales of 13,472 units and 12,523 units, up 18.4% and 8.4%, respectively.
In luxury cars, only the BMW 3 Series maintained positive growth, with sales of 12,271 units in February, up 23.1% year-on-year. The continuous growth of BMW 3 Series sales is mainly due to BMW's strong brand influence and BMW 3 Series' good product competitiveness, and the standard 2.0T engine of the whole series is obviously more attractive to consumers than the 1.5T engine equipped with the Mercedes-Benz C-Class.
In February this year, the Audi A4L and Mercedes-Benz C-Class showed different degrees of decline, with the latter falling by more than 25%. Mercedes-Benz C-class showed a sharp decline last month, in addition to being affected by factors such as insufficient chips, the 2022 Mercedes-Benz C-class was just listed last month is also one of the important factors of its decline, and some consumers are in a state of waiting for new cars with coins.
In terms of medium and large cars, first-line luxury brands such as BBA occupy the vast majority of market share. The Mercedes-Benz E-Class, BMW 5 Series and Audi A6L have long dominated the top three of the list, with sales of all three exceeding 10,000 units last month, at 11,102, 10,627 and 10,170 respectively, up 14.1%, 12.2% and minus 8.1% year-on-year, respectively.
It is worth mentioning that SAIC Audi has launched the Audi A7L at the end of last year, and it remains to be seen whether its arrival can change the current pattern of the medium and large car market. At present, the Audi A7L is in the stage of capacity climbing and terminal sales channel expansion, with sales of only 258 units in February.
Take a look:
Overall, joint venture brands still dominate the car market. However, with the continuous enhancement of the independent brand's own research and development strength and the greater advantages in new energy vehicles, independent brands have begun to continuously encroach on the share of joint venture brands in the car market. Up to now, Xingrui has gradually gained a foothold in the mainstream joint venture car market, BYD Qin has sold more than 20,000 vehicles in the compact car market with the advantages of pure electric and hybrid technology, and models such as BYD Han and Xiaopeng P7 have also had good sales performance in the medium and large car market.
In addition, the recent continuous exploration of oil prices is also conducive to independent brands taking advantage of new energy to further expand their share in the car market. It is foreseeable that with the continuous acceleration of the electrification of the domestic passenger car market, the competitive pattern of independent cars and joint venture cars will inevitably undergo new changes.
Attached: February 2022 car sales ranking
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